You can get a smaller waist line by way of chocolate

There are a lot of things that are at least slightly atypical about the life of the Downbeat and the Maestro. I could bore you with a laundry list, but I won't. Atypical thing #837 that stuck out to me this morning as I woke up is that we're friends with wide array of people from all generations, occupations, walks of life, etc. It makes me feel less out of touch. I like having friends both older and younger than I am to give me better perspective on how others live. And I feel like I learn a lot from having friends that run the gamut of life experiences.

I came to this point of introspection by way last night's social outing. We're friends with a family from Kent Island. Said family is comprised of an almost-21-year-old male and his parents. We're pretty equally comfortable with both generations in this family. They invited us over for crabs (an annual October tradition we seem to have with them) and to see the new (beautiful) house that they're almost finished building. We ate crabs outside on the deck (they have to remind me every hear how to eat crabs with a sharp knife rather than a mallet), then we drank coffee and sang hymns and O Brother Where Art Thou inside.

The evening's hostess reminded me of her favorite (and very magical) dessert. I may be wrong, but somehow I think I would never have procured this recipe from someone in the same demographic as my own.

The Diet Coke Cake

Ingredients:
*A box of chocolate cake mix
*A 12-oz can of Diet Coke
*Cool Whip

Directions:
Empty box of cake mix into bowl. Empty can of Diet Coke into same bowl. Mix with spatula. Spread into a cake pan. Follow heating and baking directions on box (usually 30 minutes at 350-degrees or something like that). Remove, allow to cool, and cut into squares. Apply liberal dollop of Cool Whip.

If you prefer Caucasian cake, you can substitute angel food cake mix and Diet Sprite.

A slice of that bad boy will only hit you up 200 calories. Is that not the most magical thing in the world? No eggs, no butter... just a can of diet soda. It also happens to be the moistest slice of cake I've had. Ever.

It was a lovely end to a crazy busy weekend.

In other news, I've been not-so-officially conserving calories (mostly by being too busy to eat regularly, but cutting out most of the junk when I do), but I feel heads and tails better. If I maintain my lack-of-muffin-top and go to the gym at least twice this week, I'm rewarding myself with a new pair of skinny jeans on Friday. I'll let you know how it goes. And who knows, maybe I'll actually make my oven earn its keep Chez Downbeats and make some Diet Coke cake myself. Every girl needs her chocolate fix after all.